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Hearthstone: Whispers of the Old Gods and Standard Format Information Recap

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The wait is over, and Whispers of the Old Gods is finally here. This recap covers some of the frequently asked questions about the release, and also tries to make sure that you don't miss out on some of the things on offer.

As soon as Whispers of the Old Gods is live in your region, you will be able to play Wild or Standard formats. Your best ranking will be displayed to your friends. If your best ranking is in Standard, it will be displayed as per normal. If it is in Wild, it will have tentacles wrapped around it. Whispers of the Old Gods will be live on April 26th on the Americas server and April 27th on the other servers.

The Standard format will be the format used for Hearthstone Championship Tour events, and it is expected that most other major events will follow suit. You will be able to use cards from the Basic and Classic sets, as well as Blackrock Mountain, The Grand Tournament, The League of Explorers, and Whispers of the Old Gods. Decks using other cards will only be playable in Wild.

To get you started on your Standard experience, there are a total of thirteen free packs available. Make sure to log in during the first week of release, and you'll be given three free packs. Remember, you can do this on each server, although your collection does not transfer between servers, so if you're easily upset by opening a Legendary on a server that is not your main, open them another day. You will receive a quest to complete two games in the new Standard format. This will give you five more packs on completion, and also unlock the next quest; which is to win a further seven games for five more packs.

Although they happened two days earlier than expected, there are also twelve nerfs associated with the launch of the Standard format. You will be able to get a full dust refund on these cards for, in Blizzard's words, "A limited time". There is no downside to dusting the nerfed cards as you can always re-craft them later. Be sure to check you have applied the patch first, in case somehow that hasn't happened.

Adventures that are not a part of Standard will no longer be available for purchase. If you own at least one wing of such an adventure, you will be able to purchase other wings from it with gold. Cards from adventures that are not a part of Standard can be crafted with dust, as if they were normal cards.

Standard will continue to use the same expansions until the first expansion of 2017, when the format will be updated to exclude cards in sets from 2015. This will serve to keep the game fresh. The first Standard year will be named The Year of the Kraken.

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